Ask Lemmy

The first things I remember watching were Lensman, Akira, Iria:Zeiram, and Armitage that I borrowed from a friend after asking what this anime stuff was all about.

I was always a huge animation fan, and as a 20 year old, stuff like Batman the Animated Series was still great, but this anime stuff was definitely offering things geared with an older age bracket in mind. They were as diverse in content as a movie, just animated.

What I have always loved about animation is there are no limits to what can be done, because things like physics or actor safety aren't concerns, and having outrageous shapes, colors, giant robots, aliens, transforming objects, etc can all fit in perfectly with the overall aesthetic of the animated world, so the most outlandish or impossible things don't feel out of place.

All this, along with subject matter as childish or mature as I desired was perfect for me.

I've seen tons of anime at this point, and there are so many great titles it's hard to name just a few good ones. Overall, One Piece is amazing, such rich and diverse characters and islands, and it seems the creator has always had a strong vision of the story he wanted to tell, as stuff from 20 years ago still fits perfectly with new lore being revealed today in a way that feels intentional, not just how do we keep new stuff canon with the old stuff. Gintama is equally amazing. It starts very bland and boring, but holy heck, does the story go places by the end! Like One Piece, there is so much content and the world and characters are explorer so thoroughly that they feel like real people and lived in places, not just set pieces. Gintama also has a ton of parady of other anime, so if you've been a long time fan, there's so many jokes and bits and spoofs, that there's just jokes on jokes for whole episodes. Both these series can make you laugh until you cry while also having some of the deepest emotional moments because I know more about these characters "lives" than I do about a lot of real people. You get invested in characters after a few hundred episodes! 😆

There have been plenty of anime that just weren't for me. With specific exceptions, I'm not big on the isekai stuff (someone in the modern era is transported as-is or is reincarnated in another world) because so many feel like rip offs or cheap fan service.

I wouldn't call it a bad experience, but Farming Life in Another World was my big disappointment. I liked the premise. Was curious to learn about the farming. The animation style looked great. The character designs were beautiful. It even had an adorable giant spider family, but instead of being scary, they ate potatoes. But there was no real farming or world building. The show was basically beautiful women (and women is sometimes stretching the age) one after the other moving to the village to help on the farm and sleep with the main character. 😒

I asked manga readers if it got better and was told if I didn't like it by the point I was at, it wasn't going to get better. Reincarnated as a Slime is similar, though has some things done not as ideally visually for me, it's got a million times more plot and while it has fan service and some questionably agreed characters, nobody is actually doing anything with anyone else so whatever.